Sci-Fi London, the venerable British film festival devoted to all things fantastic and, er, science fictional, is making its very first short film. And they need your (modest) financial support to get 'er done.

Titled Ellipse, it's to be directed by Ilana Rein, who previously made the documentary We Are All Cylons. Sci-Fi London founder and festival director Louis Savy is serving as producer. The film Is being made in collaboration with the Royal Observatory Greenwich, home of the the Prime Meridian. The premise certainly sounds intriguing:

Leo is from another world, many light years from Earth. He is a player in an intergalactic game, travelling to other worlds and planting the seed of knowledge about whether we are alone in the universe.

On Earth he has tried many times to point us toward the truth but our technology and the recipients of his 'sharing' have not been able to take the steps needed to unlock the secret.

Then he finds Ro, an exceptionally bright girl who he draws into the game. She becomes fated to study astrophysics and as a grown up astronomer, her research leads her to identify a particular comet and send a lander to explore it.

Mr. Savy describes the project as "proper science fiction." You can watch the pitch video below to find out why.